That job description never came up until recently. No one even really knew it existed." -- Peggy Barton, human resources director of Jefferson Parish

The Jefferson Parish Council continues to ignore Parish
President John Young's nomination to fill the position of compliance and ethics officer, which has been vacant for four months. For the third consecutive
meeting, the council -- as of Friday -- has refused to place the nomination of Assistant Parish
Attorney Andrew Maestri on its Dec. 11 agenda. Instead, the council will consider
tightening the job qualifications to effectively disqualify Maestri.

The Parish Council created the ethics officer
position in March 2010 after the corruption scandals in former Parish President
Aaron Broussard's administration. The job requirements passed into parish code
include five years in the practice of law or certification as a compliance and
ethics officer.

But the job description on file with the parish human resources
department requires experience specifically in compliance and ethics law, previous
management responsibility in the field and an undergraduate degree in certain
related areas, among other things. Administration officials say they
don't know how the discrepancy in the job requirements occurred.

Human Resources Director Peggy Barton said she was not
working in the department when the ordinance passed, and the person in charge
of preparing job descriptions retired three months after council members
created the position. Barton added that she was unaware of the description on
file until the previous compliance and ethics officer, Kim Chatelain, resigned
in August to take a job in the parish's inspector general's office.

"It appears that HR was preparing the job description at the
same time the ordinance was going through, and no one went back and compared
the two," Barton said. "That job description never came up until recently. No
one even really knew it existed."

Maestri graduated from the Loyola University New Orleans
School of Law in 2006 and then worked as an associate with two civil law firms,
where he gained experience in insurance defense, product liability and medical
malpractice litigation, among other areas, according to his resume. He
specializes in civil litigation in the parish attorney's office, where he began work in 2011.

Chief Administrative Officer Chris Cox said Maestri likely
doesn't meet the more stringent requirements, but that the administration
stands by its choice. The administration did not advertise the position, Cox
said, but "informally interviewed" several candidates.

Maestri "is a conscientious and hard-working attorney. He
is also personally known by us to be very ethical," Cox said. "We were
impressed with his qualifications, and impressed with his initiative. We made a
selection relatively quickly."

The looser requirements in the ordinance take precedence; Councilman Mark Spears is sponsoring the amendment to match the code with
the job description on file in the human resources department. Spears did not return requests for comment Friday, but he
told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune last month that he holds nothing against
Maestri.

"I'm just incorporating (the job description) into the
ordinance," Spears said. "I just wanted to make sure that it was consistent."

Cox said he spoke with all council members before asking them to place the nomination on the agenda in October. Spears was the
only one to balk, Cox said. Spears
actually wants to eliminate the position, a move the administration strongly
opposes. Spears argues that the parish attorney's office is well-equipped to handle
the duties, but Cox said the position should stand on its own. In fact, the
parish attorney's office has been handling the duties by default since Chatelain's
retirement, and Cox said the lingering nomination is draining the office.

"The parish attorney is not looking to continue doing this
work," he said.

The ethics and compliance officer's salary range is $81,329 to
$114,438. The measure to eliminate the position is deferred until February.
Councilman Ben Zahn wrote in an email that he believes the position should
remain in place and that he hopes a nominee
"can be voted on in short order."

In an interview, Councilwoman Cynthia Lee-Sheng said she is
still weighing both of Spears' initiatives, but that she generally favors
tightening the job requirements, if only to see if the parish can attract
candidates with background specific to the position.